That refreshingly original vocabulary, apparently based on gut feeling, is a pleasure to read.

A lot of people, us included, write about beer using words and terms largely informed by Michael ‘Beer Hunter’ Jackson, Roger Protz, and others in that lineage. People will describe ‘horse blanket’ when they really mean ‘that thing you get in that other beer that Michael Jackson said had a horse blanket character’. Who, apart from Adrian Tierney-Jones, has actually smelled a horse blanket? Seriously?

The whole idea of the referential vocabulary is very new though, giving it a different spin may be refreshing in moving away from regulated terms such as those on Meilgaards flavour wheel but the force for most of the tasting industry is towards standardisation not eloquence. If you want eloquence sn’t an evocative rather than referential approach a way to go. Or is that straying into doggeral poetry and the silliness of Food and Drink programme “this beer reminds me of a sumemrs day”
You might find this interesting on that history though: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/bios/docs/shapin_Tastes_of_Wine.pdf

Thanks for the link — useful! We’ve recently been researching the application of ‘wine tasting’ language to beer which, as far as we can tell, didn’t really begin until c.1980. Before then, we’ve got a few uses of ‘nutty’, one of ‘blackcurrant’ (to describe hop character), but not much else.

The world is a very different place from what it was when Jackson began writing about beer and I don’t think there can be much/any doubt that if he was starting out today the language he’d use would be very different from that for which he came to be known and respected and loved.

People shouldn’t try and imitate Jackson’s style. They should write in a voice that is natural to them – that’s what he did.

When writing about beer I try to embrace Allen Ginsberg’s approach to poetry: first thought, best thought.

Drinking beer is fun. The language used when talking and writing about beer should convey that sense of fun and enjoyment.

Know what you mean, if I read lychee as a descriptor again I may vomit. On the other hand I can’t be totally uncritical of my own hatred of cliche. The common currency of broad, ambiguous terms like bready/biscuity/floral is surely part of the gradual mainstreaming of beer tasting (as opposed to just drinking) that you have written about before. Irritating to me for their imprecision but more useful than “Is it a lager or an ale?” “Does it taste strong?” etc.
Even more abstract terms like ‘horse blanket’ are now used as a proxy for the smell of Brett used in secondary fermentation and/or for a long maturation. Broad ignorance of the exact nature of a petard doesn’t prevent people from using the adage in a basically correct and widely understood way.
Personal, poetic or lateral descriptors can definitely be refreshing and indicative of a new perspective. They *can* also smack of geek fortress syndrome: “Quick! People are invading our subculture, haul up the drawbridge! Obfuscate!”

I think it is all from Hugh Johnson, the use of metaphor and simile to describe flavour in drink in a systematic way. I believe Jackson credited him with part at least of his tasting approach to beer. Of course, adjectives to describe wine long-predated Johnson but his approach to tasting still is decidedly modern to this day. However, Michael too was simply giving voice to something the people thought of too. In The World Guide To Beer, he refers to a poll among the British public who were asked to describe flavours in beers and words came back such as “cabbagey” and “toffee-like”. I think “sickly” was in there too! (We’ve all had too many of those, probably poorly kept real beer). It is common sense to use metaphor relating to other foods to describe beer taste simply because both are eaten or drunk.

Once, a woman in tasting at a friend’s home with no particular experience of beer called an IPA “angular” which I thought was very interesting. It is a useful term potentially but not as descriptive as the Jacksonian vocabulary IMO.

Gary

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Over-thinking beer, pubs and the meaning of craft since 2007

We’re Boak and Bailey

We're geeks in general, but especially about beer and pubs. We write under the names Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey. We live in Cornwall in the UK. We've been blogging about beer since 2007. We're also the 2014 BGBW Beer Writer(s) of the Year. Email: boakandbailey@gmail.com.

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Duvel Tripel Hop 2014 (Mosaic)
The Duvel we know and love but with more oomph from a seasoning of fruity US hops and a touch more alcohol. Ludicrously drinkable for a beer of 9.5% it shows that ‘balance’ doesn’t have to be an excuse for meek, weak beers.

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